Well, as with many things in life, love, and flying, there are matters of degree.
The misconduct here was egregious in its manipulative character. It isn't a case - as far as I have seen reported - of rape, or attempted rape or sexual assault of any type in a physical sense. But my view (based on having advised clients in many cases akin to this fact pattern, and conducted many client organization training programs as outside legal counsel) is that in this specific instance, the egregious conduct is just as severe as physical conduct -- why?
Because in this day and age this misconduct is the exact opposite, or nearly the exact opposite, of what a Chief Pilot ought to be doing with regard to less senior (and correct me if I'm mistaken, significantly less senior in this matter) women aviators seeking to conduct their careers. That is, being a resource to aid in their progressing in proficiency, developing and sharpening flying instincts, rolling up flight hours. Instead of mentoring, he was not only abusing the authority of his position of employment and official role, but doing so in a way deliberately calculated to restrain, limit, or otherwise retard or delay these pilots' career progression.
What I'm driving at is that I'm willing to be called a bit naive for saying that I believe 100 percent of these women aviators wanted to fly airline aircraft and to do so utterly and solely professionally, with no invitation, express, implied, located by divining rod or otherwise perceived, to open their personal lives (romance, relationship, intimacy) to anyone simply because they happen to work for the company. The misconduct resulted in a kind of opportunity cost forced upon them. And it's especially inexcusable precisely because as CP this person should have been seeking constantly to provide, or to suggest at least, opportunities instead for these women aviators to enhance their careers. A pathetic, and sad, story, alas.